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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Catalogue Entry
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Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
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31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women
Johnson’s paintings of women are often his best portraits, exhibiting a range of techniques and emphasizing their intelligent faces even when enwrapped in sumptuous fabrics, such as we see in Edwina Booth. —PH
Hills no. 31.3.2
Harriet Hubbard Ayer
Alternate title: possibly Full-length Portrait of a Lady
1881
Oil on canvas
72 x 37 1/2 in. (182.9 x 95.2 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1881
Provenance
Harriet Ayer Seymour Helm Macy [first Mrs. George W. Helm, later Mrs. Valentine E. Macy, Jr.], New York, granddaughter of the sitter (by descent)
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1963 (by gift; accession no. 63.24)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia, 2014 (by transfer)
Exhibitions
1882b Century Association
Century Association, New York, March 4, 1882. (possibly, as Full-length Portrait of a Lady).References
The Collector 1889
"Memoranda." The Collector, no. 1 (November 1, 1889), p. 5.Corcoran Gallery of Art 1966
A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Vol. 1, Painters Born before 1850. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p. 115, illus.Phillips 1966
Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Vol. 1: Painters Born Before 1850. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966, p. 115, illus., as Harriet Hubbard Ayer.Cash 2011
Sarah Cash, ed. American Paintings to 1945. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2011, p. 304, illus.Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1998-03-10
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Ayer, Harriet Hubbard (Mrs. Herbert Copeland Ayer)
Biography:
Harriet Hubbard Ayer (1849–1903). Newspaper columnist, lecturer on experience in a mental institution, and owner of cosmetics and decorating businesses. Wife of Herbert Copeland Ayer (m. 1865); mother of Harriet, Gertrude, and Margaret.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
Related work
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Ayer, Harriet Hubbard (Mrs. Herbert Copeland Ayer)
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
Record last updated February 28, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Harriet Hubbard Ayer, 1881 (Hills no. 31.3.2)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=712 (accessed on April 29, 2024).